


The house that you live in don´t make it a home (I´ve finally found where I feel I belong)

by Qwerty1



Series: Keeping up with the Umbrella kids [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Except for Klaus, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No Incest, Sibling Love, and five is super protective of him, au where the academy kids are raised by grace, he is smol and scared but the sibs love their new brother, i can´t belive i have to tag that but here we are, klaus & five centric bc they are brotp, they are all good siblings and a supportive family basically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:27:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25070875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qwerty1/pseuds/Qwerty1
Summary: When Klaus is thirteen years old, he finally has enough, running away from home and the man who adopted him as an infant. He is found a few days later, and placed in a new home, a large house with many new siblings, siblings who are all special like him, but Klaus isn´t like any of them. Klaus can see the spirits of dead people. He can´t tell them this, it would just scare them away. It would help if they all just stopped being so stubbornly supportive.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves
Series: Keeping up with the Umbrella kids [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842718
Comments: 4
Kudos: 149





	The house that you live in don´t make it a home (I´ve finally found where I feel I belong)

**Author's Note:**

> so, yeah, i´m back from the void, and i have rewatched ua a total of 3 times, and a new fic baby was born!

Klaus clutches his backpack as he steps out of the social service´s issued vehicle. He never liked car rides, so many people has died on motorways, so he has no idea where he is since he sat with his eyes shut the entire way here. The social worker, he believes her name was something like Patch, exits the driver's seat and clicks the car doors locked before she walks up and stands next to him.  
“Well, kid. here we are: the Umbrella Academy!” she announces, as if an half-hearted attempt at making it sound really cool.  
She must be able to tell that he is terrified, cause she quickly adds:  
“Don´t worry, this place is full of children just like you, you are gonna fit right in! And I heard your new mum, Grace Hargreeves, is really, really nice.”  
“Yeah”, Klaus mutters, mostly cause he feels like he has to reply to that.

“Do the other children see ghosts?” he asks as they walk up to the big doors, Patch ringing the doorbell.  
She turns to look at him, her smile turning a little sad. He is still clutching his bag.  
“I don´t know, sweetheart, I can´t say. The records only said they are special. Their births were a complete, total suprise to their mums, just like yours, and when their mums couldn´t take care of them Grace became their new mum”, she explains helpfully.  
“We were all born on the same day”, Klaus says quietly, remembering what Patch has told him about the true circumstances around his birth, not long after he was given up by the man who got his hands on him first.

Patch nods, and it seems like she´s just about to say something when the door opens, starteling poor Klaus at first. What he sees might be the exact opposite of the man he used to live with: the blonde woman seems to be actually radiating love and welcoming, as if she has a core made of that that shines out energy though her entire being.  
“Hello, darling, very nice to meet you. Welcome to the Umbrella Academy. I´m Grace”, she greets.  
“Klaus”, Klaus says, letting go of his bag with one hand to shake the one Grace is extending to him.  
“Very nice to meet you, Klaus. I really hope you´ll like it here.”  
Klaus only nods, silently letting Grace guide him through the doorway. He finds himself in a very large living room, still hugging his bag like a shield as he looks around. This house is so big, and he feels so small. Perhaps because he is smart enough to know that bigger house must mean more ghosts. He never knows if they all died in the place where they show up, and for obvious reasons he has never dared to ask. The man he used to live with tried to get him to get over his fears, but that only resulted in the fears now being much worse. Reginald always talked about it as if it was unusual or even a bad thing to be frightened of dead people walking around you, and Klaus never understood that. Everyone else always seemed scared of such things. Why was Klaus any different? He thinks he can hear Patch and Grace talk about something, perhaps him, but his obviously frightened mind is so preoccupied with what he is seeing to really listen. There are ghosts here. Of course there is. People die everywhere, all the time, it´s the only certain thing in life. They are looking at him, and he can´t look away from them, frozen in fear. It´s always like this. It´s always like this.

“It´s the new kid! He is here!”  
Klaus looks towards the excited, celebratory cry, and sees who he assumes are his new siblings running down the stairs towards him. A brightly smiling girl with fluffy, curly hair is the first one down at the bottom of the stairs, dragging a slightly smaller girl with straight, black hair by the hand behind her. They are followed by four boys, and they all sort of line up in a group in the middle of the room, seemingly very happy to meet him, the small girl shyly clinging to the curly haired one. Klaus doesn´t understand that. He wouldn´t be happy to meet him.

“Welcome to the Hargreeves family. I´m Luther”, the blond boy happily greets him.  
“Klaus”, Klaus says simply, quietly, eyes still darting off to a ghost behind the other children every now and then,  
“I´m Allison”, the curly haired girl says with a wave.  
“Vanya”, the girl still holding onto her arm says with a small smile.  
“Di-Diego”, the dark-haired boy next to Luther stutters softly.  
“I´m Ben!” the boy so small-looking he could easily be mistaken for the youngest if Klaus didn´t know otherwise, exclaims.  
“Number Five. You can call me Five”, the last boy says, with fluffy dark hair and a bright, nearly proud smile.  
Assuming it´s a joke, Klaus glances at the other siblings for direction.  
“Yes, that is his name”, Vanya confirms with a shy little giggle.  
Klaus wants to ask more, but then Grace comes over and cuts into the conversation.  
“Five, you can show Klaus around, can´t you? You two will be sharing a room, and it might be nice to get to know each other”, she suggests.

It´s not that Klaus forgot he is in a house with children that are, at least according to what he has been told, “special, like him”. He doesn´t think he could forget something like that. No, he just was not prepared for Five to disappear in a blue flash and a slight woosh-sound, only to immediately end up right next to him. He cries out a little, startled, the backpack falling from his grip.  
“Five!” Allison scolds him, but she doesn't sound super angry.  
"Are you trying to scare him off?" Ben asks laughing.  
"He's fine", Five says.  
Then he pauses and looks at Klaus, a little concerned.  
"You are fine, right?"  
Klaus gives a small nod.  
"Yeah."  
"Great. Come on, I'll show you our room!"  
And with that Klaus' hand is grabbed and he is pulled along after a very excited Five, up the many stairs. It's not until Five has led him through the whole, large house and excitedly rambled on about every one of the rooms that Klaus realizes the ghosts aren't bothering him that much right now. That sort of is a first.

“Klaus, what´s your ability?”  
The question comes from Ben. It´s a completely innocent, purely curiosity-driven question, but it still sends Klaus slowly spinning into a panic. His hands squeezes the knife and fork, and he grits his teeth as his pulse picks up. That´s when Grace steps in and saves the entire situation:  
“Klaus might not be ready to reveal that yet. He wasn´t raised in the same circumstances as you were, remember”, she says kindly.  
“Why, thought? He should tell us-”, Luther starts.  
Allison slams her hands down against the table, cutting him off. Klaus flinches.  
“No he should not! It´s his choice!”  
“Allie is right”, Five says.  
Even Ben nods in agreement, despite being the one who asked in the first place. Luther seems to accept defeat, going back to his dinner, and so does the others one by one. Since Ben asked so casually Klaus assumed the siblings are open with their abilities, at least among each other, and he has to admit he is curious. Especially after learning Five can teleport.

“What about you guys? What are your abilities?” he asks them, after gathering some courage.  
Diego lights up, grabs his table knife, and throws it across the room. It hits a space where four cupboards meet with perfect precision. Klaus flinches to this as well, staring after the weapon.  
“He can aim super well”, Ben says helpfully, interpreting Diego´s demonstration.  
Allison seems to love the idea of power demonstration, turning to Luther, Luther for some reason suddenly looking mortified.  
“Allie, no!” Vanya exclaims in alarm.  
“I heard a rumor you got up on the table and did a really silly dance!” Allison announces, to Klaus´ great confusion.  
It´s like there´s a shift in the atmosphere, somehow, almost to the point of it being unreal. Luther rises from his chair and does a move to step right up onto the table, but Grace walks up and lifts him down. The boy flails awkwardly in her grasp for a bit, before he goes still and she sets him down. He gets into his seat again, glaring at Allison and angrily stabbing a potato with his fork. Grace turns to the curly haired girl as well.  
“Allison Hargreeves, we do not rumor our siblings”, Grace tells the girl sternly.  
“Sorry”, Allison mumbles, looking down.

“What just happened?” Klaus asks, confused.  
“Allison can alter reality with her words. It´s really cool”, Vanya tells him.  
“What you can do is way cooler!” Allison protests upon hearing Vanya´s words.  
Vanya blushes, ducking her head down.  
“Sh-show him!” Diego calls in excitement.  
The others immediately joins in.

After dinner, Five excitedly drags Klaus along into the sitting room. They all gather there, except for Vanya, who gets there after retrieving a beautiful violin from upstairs. Before she starts playing it she removes to ear plugs Klaus didn´t even know she had in, laying them on the coffee table before standing in the middle of the room and beginning to play the violin. The first thing that hits Klaus is that she is really good at it. Really, really good. The beautiful, soothing music flows through the room, giving an impression on having take the form of warm, kind energy. No, wait, scratch that. It´s not just an impression. Vanya´s hair has started flowing, as in an invisible wind which is somehow produced by the music. The chandelier above their heads is dangling softly, making the little crystals chime softly as they knock into each other. This energy, whatever it is, seems to fill the entire room with something nice and warm. Vanya has closed her eyes, her face almost blank with concentration. Klaus leans back against the couch, sitting cross-legged on the floor by Diego´s feet, and finds himself smiling, feeling at peace. It´s such a surreal experience, to feel so very comfortable after only a few hours in this new house, but it´s the truth. It might just be the music thought, or however Vanya´s powers are impacting the music, but things feel okay now.

There is a ghost in a corner, but Klaus doesn´t really care about it.

“Klaus? Klaus, are you listening to me?”

Klaus forces his gaze away from the shadow lurking outside the partly open door, fixing his gaze up onto the underside of the top bunk.  
“Yeah, yeah, I´m listening. You were saying...”  
Five sighs dramatically.  
“I was saying...”  
He crawls to the edge of the top bunk where he has been sitting, leaning over the fence part of the bunk so he is looking down at the bottom bunk, which is currently occupied by Klaus and Allison, Klaus sprawled out on his back among many pillows and Allison painting his toenails a very pretty, dark pink color. He has no idea how he ended up here, really, but he likes it. It´s very nice and peaceful, and it makes him feel part of something. Of their family. Even if he really isn´t. Ben is sitting on the floor drawing, his current project like so often a tentacled monster made to look adorable, and Diego is on the desk chair absentmindedly playing with a butterfly knife.

Five tries again, this time more or less hanging upside down from the top bunk.  
“...if you could time travel, where - or when - would you go, and why?”  
He is grinning down at Klaus, as if this topic is one of his greatest joys in life.  
“Five is a bit of a nerd”, Ben says, not looking up from the drawing.  
Klaus thinks about this. It´s honestly nothing he has ever felt the need to consider. He has always been too worried and distracted by the ghosts to think about such things. Five seems very invested in this topic, though, and Klaus might just find that a bit adorable. He thinks harder.  
“I… I would go to the future”, he decies.  
“Why?” Five immediately questions, still as excited.  
“I´m not sure. I just thought it would be nice”, he says, finding himself shrinking into the bed, making himself small.  
“B-b-b-ut w-what if the fut-t--t-ture is worse?” Diego asks, without barely glancing away from the knife.  
And there it is. Klaus said something wrong. Well, it was gonna happen sooner or later. He always does the wrong thing, that´s just how it is. He still hasn´t told them about his ability to see the dead, terrified to scare them off, but maybe that isn´t even what´s gonna scare them off. Perhaps it´s just them realizing Klaus always does the wrong thing. He was just starting to feel like it might be possible for him to belong somewhere now, like he might even get better at handling the ghosts, but he assumes that is all over now. Well, it was great when it lasted. The ghost that was just lurking outside the room has now entered, passing right through the door and is just standing there, as if even the deceased are mocking him for all his mistakes. Which, according to the man he used to call dad, are everything he does.

“For the record, I think the future will be great. It´s just a matter of staying positive”, Allison says, dipping the small brush back into the nail polish bottle and starting on a new toe.  
“I´m hoping for flying cars!” Ben says, though still not looking up from the drawing.  
There is a flash of blue on the bunk above Klaus, and then Five is there next to him. He still isn´t completely used to this, despite the weeks he has been here, and this causes him to jerk slightly.  
“Five! You are destroying my masterpiece!” Allison cries, gesturing to the colorful toes belonging to Klaus.  
There´s been a small, pink smudge on the skin of the toe she was currently painting as a result of the jolt, and now Allison is looking at it like it is rude of the smudge to be there.  
“Sorry, sorry, sorry”, he immediately starts to cry, tears even gathering in his eyes.  
He keeps doing the wrong thing! He keeps making mistakes! His father was right! And the Hargreeves are gonna see that, too, not wanting him in their family anymore once they realize all he does are mistakes-

Then someone is hugging him. The angle is a bit awkward, from the side, but it is a hug and it might be the best thing Klaus has ever experienced. It´s Five, he realizes, quickly wrapping his own arms around the boy. Allison, still at the foot of the bed, puts the brush back into the polish bottle and starts crawling up towards them.  
“No, no, Klaus, it´s not your fault. It´s okay, it´s just a little smudge anyway”, she says.  
“A-a-a-nd Five made y-you jump”, Diego adds.  
“Exactly, there´s no need to cry”, Five says.  
Klaus leans into the hug. It feels really nice. It no longer matters that there is a creepy ghost in the middle of the room, staring at him with its dead eyes, he suddenly feels completely safe.

After a moment of the embrace, Five starts to pull back.  
“You better now?”  
Klaus gives a small nod, and Five sits back on his knees on the side of the bed. He lays back again, and Allison goes back to painting the nail she was working on.  
“We are not mad at you, you know that right?” she says.  
Klaus glances at the ghost, still there.  
“Yeah, I know.”  
He turns his head so he faces to wall, doing everything to ignore the ghost. Sometimes they´ll talk to him, but he never listens. Needing to be distracted, but still without anyone else noticing what´s going on, he addresses Five, still sitting right beside him.  
“What about you? Where would you go?”  
Five, it turns out, has paid this a lot of thought. His face lights up, in a bigger grin than before, not that Klaus knows how that is possible.  
“I would go back in time and shoot Hitler in the head!”  
“That is a good idea”, Klaus says.  
“But Luther says murder is illegal”, Five continuous sadly.  
“Perhaps because it is?” Allison joins in.  
“Not if you k-k-k-kill Hitler!” Diego says.  
“We would be saving so many lives!” Five says, almost dreamingly.  
“They s-s-hould g-g-g-iv-v-e us a me-d--d-dal”, Diego says happily.  
“It´s still murder, thought. Alright, all done! I think you can still walk around while it´s not fully dried, just be careful”, Allison says, sitting back proudly and screwing the cap back on the nail polish bottle.

Klaus jumps up onto his feet, wiggling his toes with a happy giggle.

The only thing in Klaus´ life that doesn´t seem to be getting any better soon, are the nightmares. Namely, the nightmares he has acquired from the times his dear old used-to-be-dad locked him up in that building with all the ghosts. After the second night forced to stay there he ran away from home, and he was found by Patch and other nice people that helped him not many days later, but in this case it´s clear that quantity does not matter. He jolts up in the bottom bunk bed, grabbing the sheets between his hands and hissing out with gritted teeth. He sits there, shaking and shuddering, the images of those aggressive, screaming, clawing ghosts still fresh in his mind from the dream. The ghosts in that stone building were always so much scarier and threatening than the ones he sees in the street and other places, and he has given up wondering why. The sick bastard of a father used to say that would help him get over his fear, to get better at handling the other ghosts, but the truth is that it has had the exact opposite effect.

Not wanting to disturb and upset Five, still sleeping on the top bunk, Klaus rises from the bed, sneaks out the room and further down the hallway. The bathroom is the furthest room in the hallway, and he quickly but silently tiptoes in there and shuts the door. The room is lage, and the tile floor is ice cold against his feet, his pink toe nails visible as he turns on the bright lamp. Getting cold water running from the tap in the sink he splashes his face with cold water, staring at his reflection in the mirror. Ghosts doesn´t have reflections, and he doesn´t notice he is being observed until he spins around. Why is it staring? Can´t it see he is really upset? Shouldn´t the deceased have the most respect, in a way.

“GET AWAY!!!!!” he screams at it, having enough.  
He curls up in the corner, putting his hands over his ears.  
“GET AWAY!!!”  
The floor and walls of the tomb are like hard ice against his body, but he still presses himself in against the corner, but it´s no use. He can´t escape the ghosts. They are everywhere, all around, grabbing after him, yelling in his face, their bony fingers passing through his arms as they go to scratch him and leaves his body cold with terror.  
“NO! GET AWAY! GET AWAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!”

The blue flash and slight noise of movement brings his panicked mind back to the here and now. He is not locked in the tomb. He is curled up in the floor of the bathroom of the Academy, and little Number Five is standing right in front of him, in his silly pineapple printed pyjamas and armed with a stapler, of all things. He is breathing harshly and the arm holding the crafting supply is pulled back, as if he is prepared to actually knock someone out with it. He must´ve heard the screaming, and assuming there was someone else in here, but when he doesn´t see anyone else his breathing slows down and he looks around before dropping the stapler to the floor, rushing over to Klaus and dropping to his knees next to the terrified boy, putting a hand on his arm.

“Klaus? Where are they? Someone was here, hurting you? Are you okay?”  
Klaus only clings to his arm in return, pressing his face into the shorter´s shoulder.  
“Klaus! Come on, someone was here, you were yelling at them to get away. Where are they?” Five demands, in a voice that holds a promise that he would actually rip this potential person to pieces, if it wasn´t for that small detail that the people Klaus was screaming at are already dead.  
Klaus manages to shake his head, peering up from the pyjama shirt he has had his face partly buried in.  
“No one was here”, he says.  
It is the truth. Kind of.  
“I´m okay.”  
This is a lie. Five seems to understand this right away. Stubborn, kind, idiotic, protective Five, making this so much harder! Klaus has been trying hard, to keep his ability a secret, not wanting to scare his new siblings away, like he scared his used-to-be-dad away. Five shifts so they are sitting face to face, grabbing Klaus´ hands and fixing him with a hard, serious, no-nonsense stare.

“Klaus. Tell me what happened, right now, or I am gonna go and wake Luther up right now”, Five explains in a low, dead-serious voice.  
Klaus isn´t sure what that threat is implying, cause while he knows Luther is much stronger than other kids their age he doubts the blonde boy could ever beat anyone up. Still, he sees no way out of this. Why? Why must Five do this? Why must he make Klaus scare him away? He has just found a new family, especially a new, great, brother, and he´d hate to scare him away! But he can´t see how he has a choice, so he braces himself.  
“I see dead people! Okay!? I see ghosts! That´s my ability!” he exclaims, all the fear and frustration he feels coming out as a sharp, aggressive cry.

Five doesn´t move, doesn´t even flinch, just stares at him.  
“Shit. Are you serious?” he asks after a few seconds.  
“Yup”, Klaus confirms, a bitter laugh escaping him.  
Five seems at a loss of words, of what to do. Klaus doesn´t understand: if he is gonna leave, why can´t he just leave? Why does he have to drag it out?  
“Can I…? I mean, do you-? Do you want a hug?” Five finally asks, awkwardly stumbling over his words.  
Klaus swallows. He does not want to appear weak, but he really, really, wants that hug.  
“Yes”, he whispers, and then Five is hugging him, and he is crying.  
Sobbing, even, clinging to Five. Five holds him in an embrace, not saying anything, just holding him. It´s very nice and relaxing, almost oddly so, to finally have said the words out loud, to be able to let go of trying to pretend he isn´t scared.

“Do you see them, like, all the time?”  
Klaus breathes in deeply, gathering himself.  
“More or less, but most of the time they just ignore me. The everyday ghosts aren´t half as bad as the ones in the tomb where dear old dad forced me to spend some nights”, he says, suddenly rambling cause it feels so very liberating to finally talk about this.  
Five blinks.

“Your. Dad. Did. What!?” he hisses out.  
“SShhh, you´ll wake the others”, Klaus whispers, voice muffled since his face is still pressed into Five´s shoulder.  
Five looks around the big bathroom, empty except for the two boys and the door partly open towards the dark, silent corridor.  
“Well I should wake them, Klaus that is abuse-”  
Klaus gets into a panic at that, pulling back to look at his brother with wide eyes and shaking his head frantically.  
“No, no, no, don´t tell anyone else, please no”, he whispers weakly.  
Five sighs, long and in defeat, and pulls Klaus into another hug.  
“Okay, I won´t tell, but you are an idiot, you know that right?”  
“Why?” Klaus asks weakly.  
“Because this is something that scares you, this ghost thing, and you insist on dealing with it on your own, when it´s my job and duty to protect my baby brother”, Five whispers against his hair.  
“Hey, we are all the same age!”  
“Irrelevant.”  
“Five-”  
“Why are you guys up?”

Vanya is standing in the hallway, just outside the bathroom, shining a flashlight right at their faces. Klaus squints and Five ducks his head away from the sharp light.  
“Klaus had a nightmare”, Five informs their sister, and Vanya clicks off the flashlight and comes in the join the two on the bathroom floor.  
“I´m sorry, Klaus. Are you okay?” she asks.  
Klaus nods. Vanya stands up again, grabbing his hand and pulling him up with her.  
“When I have bad dreams I drink a glass of warm milk”, she explains proudly, beginning to lead him out the door, presumingly to the kitchen for this exact thing, but stopping when she spots something.  
“What´s that stapler doing there?”

Five does keep his promise, not saying a word to anyone about Klaus´ ability to see ghosts, not even to Grace, who Klaus assumes already knows cause she spoke to Patch and Patch knew about it. Klaus hates to admit it, but he actually expected Five to break it. The boy has known their other siblings way longer than he has known Klaus, and Klaus is so used to be let down he actually didn´t expect anything else, but Five turns out to be truly trustworthy. And, super protective. Klaus notices how Five now makes sure to be near him, asking how he is doing, and also occasionally reminding him that he should feel safe enough to talk to his siblings if anything is bothering him. Klaus has understood that all the Hargreeves siblings are so close they are almost like a mini family unit of their own, always helping each other and doing stuff together while Grace cooks are does laundry. One sunday a month, for example, the siblings go over to their favorite donut shop.

This is a sunday like that, and Klaus quickly learns this is a very big deal in the Hargreeves household. Everyone runs around, emptying their wardrobes and drawers in search for a very good outfit for this occasion. Feeling a little lost when it comes to fashion, Klaus has started wandering the hall. He nearly bumps into Allison as she exits the room she shares with Vanya, both of them exclaiming apologies at the same time. His gaze just sort of catches the room behind her, fixing on the pile of skirts on the floor. Allison notices. Not right away, but Klaus can tell on the look on her face when she connects the dots after looking back to see what he is looking at.  
“Ah. You wanna borrow one?”  
Klaus freezes. He doesn´t know. He hasn´t thought about that, he just thought they looked pretty. Can he? Should he? His dad yelled at him when he tried the maid´s heels that one time. He swallows.

“It´s okay, you can. I mean, as long as you don´t spill anything on them. C´mon, I¨ll help you pick! This is an unique opportunity for me to finally influence someone to have an actual fashion sense in this house, cause Vanya never wears skirts nor dresses”, the curly haired girl says happily, and Klaus feels less like a scared animal and more excited about this self discovery journey.  
He lets himself be led into the girls´ bedroom, Allison starting to dig through the pile and asking him about colors and styles. About fifteen minutes later Klaus emerges down the stairs to meet the other siblings, now wearing a black and yellow plaid skirt with a little black lace trim at the bottom, in combination with a white t-shirt with a bright rainbow print, and somehow feeling more comfortable than he has in a long time. No one of the siblings actually seems super suprised at this sight. A little at first, maybe, but they all quickly brighten up and wave him over to them.

“Nice dress”, Five tells him as he joins the group in the large hallway.  
“Danke”, Klaus replies brightly, Five walking up and randomly leaning his elbow against Klaus´ shoulder as they stand there and wait for Grace to hand out the cash and wave them off as they leave for the donut place.  
Klaus remember once telling him other people around makes the ghosts much less scary, and physical contact is the best thing he can get to help him, so perhaps this is just an attempt from Five´s side to be both helpful and edgy. Again, adorable. (Don´t ever tell Five he thinks that, it would probably shatter the cool-dangerous-big-brother-role he has taken on, despite all of them being the exact same age).

Griddy´s Donuts is located only a few streets from the Academy building, a small but somehow very endearing coffee shop focused on donuts. The old, very kind-looking lady behind the counter immediately seems to recognize the Hargreeves siblings, happily greeting them all by name. All except from Klaus, of course, who she has never met before.  
“Hi there kids, welcome! I see you brought a new friend!”  
“Hi, Agnes. This is Klaus, our new brother”, Ben introduces Klaus, Klaus himself slightly intimidated by the amount of people in here.  
He follows his siblings up to the counter, where they all look at the menu above the counter to see what they want. Klaus has just decided on a strawberry doughnut with extra sprinkles when a voice reaches his ears:  
“Nice skirt.”

He turns to look towards the voice. The old lady is smiling at him. He smiles back.  
“Thank you.”  
“What´s your name, dear?” the old lady asks sweetly.  
“I´m Klaus”, Klaus says brightly.  
She smiles. Someone taps his shoulder, and he looks over quickly. It´s Five, looking mildly disturbed, and Klaus ignores him in order to keep talking to his new friend. Five must be worried about him talking to a stranger, but this old lady looks like she could never do anyone harm.  
“I´m Ellie. It´s nice to have someone to talk to.”  
Klaus nods.  
“I get that. I like talking, too, but I sometimes get a little shy around new people”, he confesses.  
Five is now poking him more urgently, and he suddenly notices everyone is staring at him. His siblings with great concern, Agnes and the other customers with a look he would most closely associate with fear. A man starts to rise from a chair by a table.  
“Young man, do you feel okay?” he asks.  
“Of course”, Klaus confirms.  
Ellie continues:  
“It´s so nice to see young people like you be courageous and express yourself without caring. Society was so boxed in, especially the clothes, back when I was alive.”

Oh. There it is. That´s why Five has been poking him, and why everyone here has been looking at him funny. To them, he must be having a conversation with the empty air. This woman is a ghost. This lady is dead. Klaus can physically feel the color leave his face as he tries to catch his breath, the shop spinning around and around.  
“Klaus, what´s going on?” Ben asks anxiously.  
“I…. I… I need some air”, he maneges, rushing out the doors.

He finds an especially quiet spot by the side of the building and sits down there, pulling his knees up to his chin and staring down at the plaid pattern of the skirt. She is a ghost, and he never even knew. Ghosts are usually easy to tell apart from the living, cause they are screeching and covered in blood, but this lady was so different. She was nice. A nice ghost, who would have believed that? Not Klaus, at least, yet here he is. He takes to gently swinging his knees side to side, as if to occupy himself with something.  
“Hey, fellas, look at this fag, he is so confused he thinks he is a girl!” someone yells suddenly, definitely not a ghost, and this call is followed by a row of derogatory cackles.

Klaus looks up. Three teenage boys, years older than him, are stalking closer and closer to him, all while looking at him with these large, demeaning grins. He shrinks in against the side of the building, fearful. They are very scary. Klaus would prefer the ghosts, he believes, cause the ghosts at least can't physically touch him. The teen at the front of the small gang lashes out, grabs the fabric of the skirt and gives it a jerk, resulting in a large tear. Klaus yelps, jumping up to his feet.  
“Leave me alone!” he cries.  
There are tears burning in his eyes. The teenagers look at each other, grinning in a very mean way.  
“Leave me alone!” he repeats, a little louder, but still weakly.  
“I´ll give you something to cry about”, one of them cackles evilly, pulling their hand back, as if-

Klaus braces himself, but there is nothing. No punch, no pain. There´s just a flash of blue, a whooshing noise, and Five´s furious voice.  
“LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!” the shorter one screams, from where he has suddenly popped up on the boy´s shoulders and is now struggling to hang on while he scratches and kicks at him.  
“What the fuck-? Get him off me!” the teenager cries, spinning around and attempting to grab Five to grab him down from his back.  
Five loses his grip, and is sent tumbling to the ground with a sharp cry. The other siblings run up to the scene, Allison at the front. The older teenager makes a move as if to kick poor Five, but he receives a knife to his knee and while he is distracted by the pain Five gets into sitting position and flashes over to Klaus. Klaus has no idea why a thirteen year old walks around with knifes, even someone as skilled with them as Diego, but now he feels lucky he was.

With Five and Klaus huddled together against the wall of the building, the three older boys begins to move towards their other siblings in a slightly threatening manner. The siblings back away and spread out around the older boys, as if trying to surround them. Allison visibly braces herself before walking up to one of them.  
“I heard a rumor you got really sleepy, and can´t stay awake”, she says quickly, all in one breath.  
The teenager stills, blinks, and then releases a gigant yawn before simply lying down on the pavement ground and seemingly falling asleep. Right there. It would´ve made Klaus giggle, if it hadn´t been for the context of the situation and the necessity of which Allison did that. Allison herself seems very proud of this achievement.  
“It´s some voodoo crap”, one of the two still awake older teenageres whispers, looking down at his sleeping friend in something like fear.  
The other one moves towards Allison, but Luther jumps in front of her and the seemingly effortless push sends the boy flying backwards and then sliding backwards across the ground. The last standing member of the trio is looking at the siblings in horror, his gaze traveling between them. They are looking at him, too, as if each one of them are waiting for the perfect opportunity to use their abilities to go to an attack.

“Little fuckers...”, he mutters angriy, zooming in on Vanya as if going to grab her.  
“Bad idea, buddy...”, Five says, still sitting beside Klaus by the wall.  
“Get him, sis!” Allison calls.  
Vanya removes her ear plugs, and her long, black hair seems to take on a life of its own as it flows in that way that hints there is enormous amount of power in this little, shy girl. Said power, fueled by all the noise around them, sourges out of her like a slightly shining wave, knocking over not only the older teenager closests to them but also the one a bit back trying to rise to his feet after Luther threw him. They are knocked over like dominos, crawling out of the siblings´ line of sight with frightened cries.

“You are a queen!” Luther cries in excitement, pulling the girl into a hug after she has put the ear plugs back in safely.  
They were made especially for her, to filter out background noise but not speech, so she won´t have to worry about her power acting up when she is just hanging out and speaking to someone. With threat of disrespectful teenagers out of the way, the rest of the siblings join Five and Klaus, sitting in a little circle around the two, Luther wrapping an arm around the seemingly upset Ben and helpfully leading him over to join the others.

“Klaus? A-a-are you h-h-hurt?” Diego asks.  
Klaus shakes his head, sniffling softly.  
“No, I´m okay. Thanks, you guys, and, Allie, I´m sorry about your skirt.”  
Allison shakes her head.  
“No, no, it was those idiots”, she says.  
The siblings shares a quiet, concerned look, as if there is something they need to address but they are nervous to do so. Luther is the one who finally speaks up:  
“Klaus… In the donut shop, you were talking to someone...”  
Klaus shakes his head.  
“Yeah, she… She was dead, a ghost, that´s why no one else saw her.”  
“You see ghosts”, Luther says, and the way he says it like one might point out the color of the sky cofuses Klaus, the fact that it doesn´t seem like such a big deal.  
He nods, looking down at his hands where they are playing with the ripped hem of the skirt.  
“Man, that g-g-gotta s-suck”, Diego says.  
“You have no idea”, Klaus says, smiling bitterly.  
“Why didn´t you tell us?” Vanya asks, very concerned.  
Klaus sighs.  
“I didn´t wanna scare you guys away.”  
Ben starts to giggle.  
“Scare us away? Klaus, I have actual monsters living inside me”, he announces, gesturing down at himself.  
“We are all a bit odd, but we are family so we can be odd together”, Five declares proudly.  
“I like that”, Klaus says softly.  
“Group hug!” Diego yells suddenly, and they all imiediatly huddle together in a big, seven-person-pile of limbs and sibling love.

Klaus is happy. Klaus feels like he belongs somewhere.

A few days later, a few minutes after lights out, Klaus has taken his pillow and placed it over his ears in an attempt to drown out the screams of the dead. Things have gotten way easier now that his siblings all know about the ghosts, when he doesn´t need to try to hide it when he´s scared, but the ghosts themselves aren´t more well-behaved or anything. Tonight, the deceased all seem extra chatty for whatever reason. What do they even have to yell about, they are already dead? He does try to sleep, but whenever he closes his eyes they are there so it´s really no use. Instead he sits up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and hiding his face in his palms. The dead are still yelling. No, he won´t be able to get any sleep like this. He needs…

He needs some company, someone else to distract him, help him deal with the ghosts.

He peers up to the top bunk. He can tell Five is awake, cause he can hear his brother move up there, and he would really like his company right about now. He would feel better with any company, honestly, but there´s just something about Five that makes him feel safe and comfortable. Possibly cause Five seems protective enough, and fully capable to, rip anyone to bits if they tried to hurt him. His self-proclaimed older brother does seem very extra at times, but it´s the type of extra Klaus has come to very much appreciate, and now is also in the need of to make him feel better. Slowly, carefully, he starts climbing the ladder to the top bunk. Five is, like he assumed, awake. The other boy sits up slowly, rubbing his eyes.

“Klaus, what is it? Can´t you sleep?”  
Klaus shakes his head. Five hesitates.  
“Ghosts?”  
He says the word so quietly, carefully, as if he is scared Klaus might be offended by it. Klaus only nods.  
“Yup.”  
“That sucks.”  
Klaus swallows, fixing his stare on his hands.  
“Actually, I don´t wanna sleep alone, so if there´s no trouble-”  
“Klaus-”  
“No, I´m sorry, you´re right, I´m a big boy, it´s stupi-”  
“Klaus!”  
It´s still whispered into the darkness of their shared bedroom, but still louder than an average whisper. Klaus stops his nervous rambling.  
“Yes?”  
Five sighs, like he thinks Klaus is stupid for not understanding something obvious. Five moves aside towards the wall, pulling up the covers.  
“Get in here, you idiot.”

Relief washes over Klaus, and he immediately climbs in under the covers next to his brother.  
“Thank you.”  
“Of course, Klaus, you are my brother”, Five says, again like it´s so obvious Klaus is stupid for not understanding it.  
Klaus only sighs, rolling over so his nose pokes into Five¨s pyjama sleeve. A few minutes passes like that, in peaceful silence.  
“They can´t hurt you, right?” Five asks suddenly.  
Klaus peers up at him.  
“Hmm?”  
“The ghosts. They can´t hurt you, right?”  
Five sounds so concerned. Klaus shakes his head.  
“Not physically, no, their touch just goes right through me”, he says.  
“Good news. I mean, I would hate for something to happen to you. I would probably end up fighting a ghost if it came to that.”  
Klaus finds himself giggling. Yes, Five is just the person for this.

“Five, you can´t fight a ghost! I mean, firstly, they have no physical body, and second, they are already literally dead so what are you gonna do?”  
There´s a spark in Five´s eyes, one that says “challenge accepted”. Klaus scoots a little closer, so their shoulders are pressed together, wanting to hear this.  
“You don´t think? Well, hah, you´ll see! Fear me, ghosts!”  
“You are insane”, Klaus laughs.  
“They´ll be more dead when I´m done with them! They´ll be super dead!” Five cackles, and then the two brothers break down in a fit of laughter.  
There´s a bang on the wall.  
“SHUT UP OR I´LL RUMOR YOU BOTH!” Allison screams from the other room.  
“SORRY, ALLIE!” they both yell in return, but they do giggle a little more before going silent.

With the silence, the ghost-induced anxiety is back in Klaus´ chest. Five must notice, cause he immediately wraps him up in a hug.  
“Hey, Klaus, no… Did I offend you? Shit, I´m sorry.”  
Klaus shakes his head against Five´s chest.  
“Not you. The ghosts.”  
“Oh, oh no. I´m sorry, man, truly.”  
“I´m alright, just… Stay?”  
It comes out so weak, so pathetic. Five just holds him a little tighter.  
“Always, little bro, always.”  
Klaus considers mentioning that they are the same age again, but that doesn´t really matter, it´s nice to feel protected by a “older” sibling. He instead tucks his head in underneath Five´s chin, inhaling deeply, feeling safe.


End file.
